CHOOSE A WORD FOR THE NEW YEAR

Choose a word as your mantra and guide for a new way to be in the New Year.

I gave up on New Year resolutions when I realized that they were quickly consigned to a closet to gather dust. Yet the dawn of each New Year continued to present a persistent nagging invitation to embrace the year ahead with new intentionality.

I could have chosen to treat this with nostalgic wistfulness but instead chose to be open to a new ritual and possibility.

A conversation with a wise friend led me to wonder what it would be like to select a word as my companion, truth-bearer, friend, and mantra for the year ahead. A new practice for choosing a new way to be in the year ahead was begun.

The result is a yearlong journey infinitely more enlivening than the failed resolutions of the past! Among the words that I and others have chosen are creativity, awareness, imagination, love and friendship. Each day I reflect on the chosen word with openness to its insights. I approach 2013 with my chosen word of Awe filled with expectation.

Call-to-Action:

Embrace the New Year:

Select a word that will enliven your yearnings or take you to the edge of your fears

Place the word in a visible place so it becomes your companion

Reflect or think about it each day; allow it to percolate

Offer weekly thanks for the insights it offers

Notice how your chosen word shifts, molds and illuminates how you chose to be.